Skip to main content

Codium muelleri Kütz.

Reference
Tab.Phycol. 34, Tab. 95, Fig. II (1856)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus moderately firm, medium green, erect, repeatedly dichotomous, to 25 cm high, branches terete, 2.5–5 mm in diameter, decreasing slightly to about 1.5 mm in diameter near apices. Utricles relatively short and often broadest somewhat below the apex, 130–520 µm in diameter and 290–960 µm long, apices broadly rounded to sub-truncate, with wall thin or occasionally thickened (to 50 µm) but always with a distinct introrse umbo to 45 µm long; hairs (or scars) common. Medullary filaments 30–60 µm in diameter, with the plug distant (80–350 µm) from the utricle base.

Reproduction. Gametangia elongate-ovoid, often tapering above, 70–150 µm in diameter and 120–290 µm long, 1–4 per utricle, borne on a slight protuberance on lower half of utricle.

Distribution. From Dongara, W. Aust., to Walkerville, Vic.

Habitat. A sublittoral species (to 11 m deep) on coasts of moderate wave action.

[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia I: 236–238 (1984)]

John Huisman & Cheryl Parker, 3 August 2021

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Esperance Plains, Swan Coastal Plain.
IBRA Subregions
Fitzgerald, Perth.
IMCRA Regions
Central West Coast, Leeuwin-Naturaliste, WA South Coast.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Cockburn, Cottesloe, Dandaragan, Esperance, Fremantle, Irwin, Jerramungup, Joondalup, Rockingham, South Perth.